Is Cobalt-60 In Play?

Been haring a little more than I care to about Cobalt-60 lately. Does anyone know if this missing Cobalt-60 has been found?

Wanted: Lost radioactive sources

Seven sources of radioactive cobalt-60 (Co-60) have gone missing from a former iron foundry in Poland - and the country's issuance of the equivalent of a 'wanted' poster to retrieve them highlights the importance of controlling radioactive materials.

A lot of wild speculations regarding the potential release of Cobalt-60 have been circulating for years. As far as I know, this is the first time that any appreciable amount of the material has been (publicly) declared missing.

Even a very small amount of Cobalt-60 can be deadly as can be seen from this incident from earlier this year:

India's cobalt-60 poisoning: canary in a coal mine

The safe disposal of millions of sources of radiation -- materials and devices used in hospitals, labs, universities, industrial testing and measurements, and more -- is a big problem; monitoring these sources of radiation is lax or non-existent: there are approximately two million radioactive devices in U.S. factories, hospitals, research facilities, and other places nationwide; last fall the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioned (NRC) moved to tighten regulations of these devices -- but only of a tiny fraction of them (2,000 in all); moreover, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that up to 500,000 of those devices are unaccounted for

Fearmongering or plausible deniability?

There's a reason the United States is pushing countries to sign up for the """Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage""".


Due to the US organized collapse they have been contracting out the Federal Logistics to move materials for DOD. Now contractors are handling-transporting radioactive material for warships, medical equipment, munitions, etc...

Now those low paid laborers for those contractors...it's a matter of time before they realize they can walk out that radioactive material to get lots of $$$$$.....

Radioactive accountability is decreasing, not increasing. Hence why the US Air Force has been publicizing their nuclear bases have FAILED inspections...lost control of nuclear warheads.....they are screaming for help.

They can't afford people anymore and the cuts are hurting the nuclear/radioactive enterprise.

BUY A GEIGER COUNTER AS WELL AS POTASSIUM IODIDE PILLS.

I wouldnt worry too much about this. It aint comforting news to hear ofcourse but i guess this shipment of cobalt can be added to the list of radioctive materials and complete ready for use nukes that have been "lost" by numerous countries over the years.

Looks more like fearmongering indeed.

reply to post by Pervius


I think a Co-60 release is one of the biggest threats to the West but it doesn't seem to get discussed much. I live in the middle of nowhere so am not personally worried about a release here, but in case fallout is an issue I do have several courses of iodine. I did look into a Geiger counter a couple of years ago but they were very expensive. Are they pretty much all the same or are there any features I should be looking for?

reply to post by Romekje


I'm not really worried because I am not in a major city. I am interested, though, to hear the mentions of Co-60 increase and the safety issues erode. It is reminiscent of just before the Anthrax attacks.

Hehe if anyone should worry about a nuke strike it's us Dutch,

Our entire country can be wiped off the face of this planet with 1 modern nuke, or a few (2/3) semi decent cold war bombs or even suitcase nukes.

What's troublesome indeed is to hear that the regulations about handling the more commercial applications of nuclear material is getting less and less.. i mean lets be honest, how hard can it be to steal some small radioactive equipment from a hospital or something?